Chapter 1: What is Social Psychology? Flashcards
Social Psychology
The study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, relate and influence others.
Social processes
How input from groups and people around us influence thoughts, feelings and actions.
Cognitive processes
How our thoughts, memories, perception and emotion guide our understanding of the world and actions.
How are cognitive and social processes intertwined?
Social processes affect us when others are not present and social processes depend on how we interpret others and their actions
What is the difference between social psychology and sociology?
Social psychology tries to understand the social behavior of individuals.
Who was the first social psychologist?
Norman Triplet
Social psychology throughout history:
- Wundt, experimental psychology and introspection
- James, more functional psychology
- Munsterberg made psychology applied science in the US
4.Behaviorism in North America - Europeans came to America with Gestalt thinking and solutions to practical problems & inferences on events WWII
- Integration social psychology with cognitive cultural and evolutionary perspectives
Kurt Lewin’s idea
Peoples subjective interpretation of reality determines belief and behavior. And the interpretation of reality depends on Social influences
Is social psychology basic or applied?
Both, in searching for principles solutions for daily life are found.
The 8 principles of social-psychological processes
Fundamental axioms:
1. Construction of own reality
2. Social influence in everything
Motivational principles:
3. Striving for mastery
4. Seeking connectedness
5. Valuing ‘me’ and ‘mine
Processing principles:
6. Conservatism
7. Accessibility
8. Superficiality vs Depth
Fundamental Axioms
Construction of own reality
Social influence in everything
Motivational Principles
Striving for mastery
Seeking connectedness
Valuing ‘me’ and ‘mine’
Processing principles
Conservatism
Accessibility
Superficiality vs Depth
Construction of own reality
cognitive processes and social processes determine our own reality
Social influence in everything
Other people influence all of our thought, feelings and behavior
Striving for mastery
Trying to understand the social world
behaviorism
human behavior can be predicted by observations from animals & behavior is controlled by its consequences
adversarial allegiance effect
Clinicians assign higher risk if they thought they were working for the offender as prosecutor rather than the defense
seeking connectedness
people seek support and acceptance from the groups and people they care about
Valuing ‘me’ and ‘mine’
People want to see themselves and groups/people connected to them in good light.
conservatism principle
individuals and groups views of the world are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves
accessibility principle
information that is most readily available generally has the most impact on thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Superficiality vs depth
people put little effort into dealing with information but sometimes are motivated to consider it in more depth
